The real estate market will only recover when loan interest rates decline, a seminar heard in HCM City on Feb. 25.
Speakingat an event hosted by Vietstock Communications, Dr Le Xuan Nghia, vicechairman of the National Financial Supervision Committee, said thoughthe Government's efforts to curb inflation have yielded results, banks'interest rates have not dropped significantly.
Prof Dr Dang HungVo, a former deputy minister of natural resources and environment, saidthe real estate market will continue to face a shortage of capital thisyear.
The sector should not have high expectations of foreigninvestment since foreign investors will only invest when they seeproperty prices drop sharply, he warned.
Both Nghia and Vo agreed however that there is unlikely to be a situation where property developers sell on the cheap.
Vo explained away the steep price cuts made by some developers as being due to the poor location of their projects.
Thetight monetary policy and oversupply in some segments have forcedproperty investors to cut prices, but this is not a widespreadoccurrence, Nghia said.
Many people are still holding out for high prices, so foreign investors consider Vietnamese property prices high, he said.
Speakingabout possible development opportunities this year, Vo said the marketcan improve in the third quarter when banks' liquidity problems areexpected to partially ease and credit will again begin to flow into it.
TheGovernment has given priority to restructuring the monetary and bankingsectors, and already approved the national housing development strategyfrom now through 2020, he said, referring to the need for more housingto be developed under the strategy.
Nghia predicted the low-priced housing segment to recover first, by mid-2012 at the earliest./.
Speakingat an event hosted by Vietstock Communications, Dr Le Xuan Nghia, vicechairman of the National Financial Supervision Committee, said thoughthe Government's efforts to curb inflation have yielded results, banks'interest rates have not dropped significantly.
Prof Dr Dang HungVo, a former deputy minister of natural resources and environment, saidthe real estate market will continue to face a shortage of capital thisyear.
The sector should not have high expectations of foreigninvestment since foreign investors will only invest when they seeproperty prices drop sharply, he warned.
Both Nghia and Vo agreed however that there is unlikely to be a situation where property developers sell on the cheap.
Vo explained away the steep price cuts made by some developers as being due to the poor location of their projects.
Thetight monetary policy and oversupply in some segments have forcedproperty investors to cut prices, but this is not a widespreadoccurrence, Nghia said.
Many people are still holding out for high prices, so foreign investors consider Vietnamese property prices high, he said.
Speakingabout possible development opportunities this year, Vo said the marketcan improve in the third quarter when banks' liquidity problems areexpected to partially ease and credit will again begin to flow into it.
TheGovernment has given priority to restructuring the monetary and bankingsectors, and already approved the national housing development strategyfrom now through 2020, he said, referring to the need for more housingto be developed under the strategy.
Nghia predicted the low-priced housing segment to recover first, by mid-2012 at the earliest./.
